Selvarajah is seen conducting the launch gambit for the newly consolidated Etika Group yesterday.

KUALA LUMPUR: Fast-moving consumer goods player Etika Group of Companies aims to increase its revenue by 30 to 40 per cent over the next three to five years by introducing products at affordable prices.

President/Chief Executive Officer Erwin Selvarajah said last year, the group’s revenue reached RM1.5 billion, adding he hoped this year’s figure would  exceed last year’s.

To date, the group has raked in about 66 per cent of the RM1.5 billion it earned last year, he told reporters at the unveiling of a brand new consolidated company, Etika Group, yesterday.

“Our focus is to continue offering consumers the best quality of our 12 categories of beverage and dairy products at affordable prices,” said Erwin.

Following the consolidation of Permanis Sandilands Sdn Bhd and Etika International Holdings, both were acquired by Japan’s Asahi Group Holdings in 2011 and 2014, respectively, and the group is now known as Etika Group of Companies.

The consolidation is expected to strengthen the group’s position as the only fully integrated halal beverage company in Malaysia.

Erwin said the consolidated company also benefits from Permanis’s collaboration with PepsiCo Inc, as well as from Japan’s technology, reducing  production cost.

“We are able to share our cost savings with consumers, whereby our products are cheaper by up to 10 per cent (compared with others) before the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax,” he said.

Erwin said currently, Etika Group’s market share in the ready-to-drink beverage segment in the country is between 20 and 25 per cent.

The group would intensify its marketing and promotion activities which take  up around five to 10 per cent of its annual revenue, he added.

Etika Group markets and distributes some of PepsiCo’s global brands such as Pepsi, Sting, Evervess, Mirinda, 7Up, Revive Isotonic, Gatorade, Lipton Ice Tea, Tropicana and Mountain Dew exclusively in Malaysia.

It also manufactures, distributes and markets Wonda Coffee and Calpis (an Asahi trademark) and its own brands such as Chill Asian Drinks, Frost, Bleu Water and Kickapoo, as well as Goodday Milk and Dairy Champ. — Bernama